I’d guess no, the number of digits and limbs is conserved very well across tetrapods (it’s in their name after all). Fucking with the amount of limbs will probably lead to some developmental errors in the early embryo.
Comment on How does DNA decide the shape of the body?
NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks agoBy the way, in case you’d have a guess for the answer:
If scientists really wanted to, throwing all questions of ethics out the window, would it be possible to genetically engineer a person with four arms instead of two, kinda like Goro? Does our current understanding of this go far enough to make deliberate changes like that? And would that baby be able to develop in a normal woman’s pregnancy?
mononomi@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
No, and no. My PhD thesis was on gene delivery. We’re barely getting into the simplest modifications for disease treatment. Multigene stuff, and spatiotemporal control is still a ways off.
Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I would say sort of. They could do it, but the result wouldn’t survive very long. Probably not even to birth.